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Mike Tyson - Undisputed Truth, Live

Tyson takes off the gloves, but still packs a punch and keeps on hitting!!
-review of Florida's only show at Seminole Casino (Coconut Creek).

He might not be prizefighting anymore, but Mike Tyson's latest one-man show still garners a hefty price tag. With tickets at $145 (excluding taxes) guests might've hoped that the former boxing icon was about to step into a ring with a lion or something, but instead took an often hilarious trip down Tyson's memory lane. Helped by Academy Award director nominee Spike Lee, Tyson's “Undisputed Truth,” is more than a one-punch knockout, but a clever storytelling of the rise and fall of a legend, which just happens to be told by the man himself.

Arising out of the mean streets of Brooklyn, Tyson's somewhat accidental connection with boxing manager and trainer Cus D'Amato is now somewhat of a fairy tale. If not for him as Tyson explains he might've been in jail all his life and never reaching his full potential. It's that relationship that also allowed him to move out of his poor community shortly after his mother passed away. Yet, he still saw himself as the poor black guy living with a rich white family, something that many of the people that knew him back home weren't too happy about. Thankfully those return trips to his roots were never long enough to sway him from his ultimate goal of becoming a champion.

He won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, 12 of them in the first round, and won the three biggest belts in prizefighting – the World Boxing Council, World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation world heavyweight titles all at the age of 20.

However, this show was more than a few boxing accolades, but often a profane-laden narrative of all of his life. From personable stories of his mom's addiction to alcohol to his own addiction with cocaine and how it controlled everything, the loss of a daughter, a rape conviction, jail time, being in a psych ward shortly after the biting incident with Holyfield, his ex-wife Robin or his “deal with the devil Don King,” Tyson's insight leaves you pressing to learn more. But, visually he doesn't do it completely alone. A lot of old photos and video depicting himself and the landscape all around him show on a large screen often throughout the show. One of the best pictures was of a very young Brad Pitt, which fed into a story of how he almost pummeled him after he drove home with his ex-wife Robin.

No matter how controversial the topic was, Tyson didn't dodge it and even danced and sung to highlight an evening of great informative entertainment.